B-utiful!

I took some pictures of some B-UTIFUL things around our house.

My blueberries are ripe, I picked 2 quarts today!

The bees are on my blackberry blossoms!

I love my Black-Eyed Susan's!

The butterflies are flitting around all my flowers!

The bees are on my butterfly bushes!

What B-UTIFUL things are around your house?

Trip to Glenville

This past weekend Charley and I traveled the long and twisting road to Glenville. We went to the West Virginia Folk Festival.

On the way there we passed by this neat little church. I love the shape of it.


Here I am with a few children in the Storyteller's Tent. I read one of my stories and the kids acted out the scarecrow and the farmer. They had a ball! I enjoyed myself, too. I found out that talking in front of people is not as hard as I thought it would be. I was there reading my stories from 4-5 pm on Saturday. In addition to my children's stories, the audience and I also talked about superstitions. I love to write about Appalachia and two of my fictional children's stories take place in West Virginia. One of them in 1908 rural West Virginia. It is filled with superstitions.


I had to take a picture of this window when I saw it. The sign said it was Akro Agate - made in Clarksburg, WV.




On the way back from Glenville, we stopped at Cedar Creek State Park. We used to go camping there and we wanted to drive through the park while we were in the area. Here is an old one-room school house surrounded with geese.



I though I'd sit for a spell while there.


In Spencer we drove past the Robey Movie Theater. It is on the National Register of Historic Places. It opened in 1907 as a vaudeville house. In 1908 it showed motion pictures. Alias Jimmy Valentine was the first talkie it showed. The Robey Theater still shows movies in Spencer.



And you know, I had to take a picture of this barn.


I love traveling West Virginia.

Traveling West Virginia - Pt Pleasant

A few weeks ago we went to Pt. Pleasant for business and ended up sight seeing.

It's a beautiful little town to visit. Find you a place to park and take a little stroll.

You will find Mothman!

Chief Cornstalk and Gen. Andrew Lewis.

Don't forget to visit the southside of the flood wall. There is a painted mural 150' long and 15-18' high. The scenes depict the Battle of Pt. Pleasant fought on October 10, 1774.

the Silver Bridge collapsed here on December 15, 1967.

We went to Tu-Endie-Wei State Park. It is only 4 acres in size.

There is a Mansion House Museum in the park. It is the oldest log hewn structure in the Kanawha Valley.

This obelisk was erected in honor of the Battle of Pt. Pleasant. It was the first battle of the American Revolution.

Here is a plaque on the side of the obelisk. It is in memory of Revolutionary soldiers buried in Mason County, WV. See any of your ancestors listed here?

And this was erected in honor of Chief Cornstalk. His remains are buried inside.

Here is the story of the famous chief.

For more of the sad story of Chief Cornstalk go here.

Pt. Pleasant is located on the Ohio River. It is a quaint little town. If you are ever in the area, slow down and visit for a while. You won't be sorry.

I love barns. On the way there I took a picture of this one:

Yard Sale Relapse

Help! I was going to stop going to yard sales, but I've had a relapse.

Somebody should have slapped my hand before I picked up these 4 beautiful strawberry metal trays for $1 and the McCoy strawberry pitcher and container. (I'm not even sure what the one on the left is, it looks like a canister without the lid. But not knowing what it was, didn't keep me from getting it) They were only 50 cents each, would you have passed them up?

My kitchen is red and yellow, I thought I could use the one on the left to put my larger spoons, egg turners and the such in. And I'm sure I could find a use for the other one, too. Maybe put flowers in it. . . what do you think? Or, hey, I could use it for what it was intended to be used for and put some water or other beverage in it.


And, even though there are no babies in my family, I couldn't pass up this beautiful hand quilted and embroidered baby quilt. It was only $2 and I love it. Did you notice in the upper left hand corner the dog is turned a different way? I've heard somewhere that the Amish would put a mistake in their quilt on purpose. I wonder if this was done on purpose or if it was a mistake?


I love cloth tablecloths. This is not an old one, but I liked the fruit pattern on it. It was only 75 cents.


And, last but not least, I got these for a quarter at the thrift store today. Fire King custard cups with a wheat pattern on them. I love the wheat pattern dishes. I will put these in my kitchen cabinet and use them.


Well, what do you think? Do I need to go to rehab? I put back a lot more than I bought. I think I did good and bought some useful items for what little I spent.

It is a hard habit to break, but I'm working on it.

Pitting Cherries

It's cherry pickin' time at my. . .

neighbor's cherry tree.

Everyone who hates pitting cherries, raise your hands.

I used to hate doing it. It was time consuming and I hated the juice running down my arms. And I hated getting all sticky.

Last year my sweet neighbor, Reba, told me an easy way to pit cherries.

Use a hairpin!

Reba gave me a few hairpins last year to use, but for the life of me I can not find them, so I had to buy a new package at the store. They don't make them like they used to, they aren't as strong as the ones I used last year and they bend easier. So if you have the flimsy ones, you can hold two of them together and it works fine.

Just insert the rounded end of the hair pin into the top of the cherry.

Twist just a little and pull it out, the pit comes out easy as pie.
Cherry Pie, that is!

If you have lots of cherries, give it a try.
You can make cherry jam, cherry cobblers and cherry pies.
Mmmmm! Mmmmmm!